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Topic: Provolone, first try (Read 2759 times)

I'm making my first foray into the world of pulled cheeses. Provolone yesterday and mozzarella tomorrow. That was fun! Didn't really need to pull anything... it was doing it all on it's own. It was all I could do to keep it from pouring out of my grasp! I was surprised by how different the recipes I looked at were from each other. I think this make went well, but I have no basis for comparison yet.

While curds are draining, raise temp of water bath to 115 degrees. Put curds back into pot and keep warm, curds should be kept at 102 - 105 degrees, and the mass should be turned twice during this time—it may take a few hours. temp 105 degrees, pH 5.6

Nice job! You know if you let them age for 6, 8, 12 months you can grate them just like parmesan and they have a nice bite to them. I grew up on well aged provalone and if you like a strong albeit smelly cheese provalone is great. Sort of smells like dirty gym socks but is lovely to eat or add grated to your favorite paste dishes, soups and pizza.

Lipase! Mozzarella doesn't use lipase. Provalone ages well in vacuum bags but traditionally get waxed and hung on strings. An aged provalone tastes similar to an aged parmesan but much stronger. I gets a bite like a real aged cheddar and smells like dirty gym socks but it's awsome. When I was a kid we always took a few loaves of Italian bread, with some good dark olive oil with basil, some really dry pepperoni sticks and some aged provalones on a picnic. The adult also got wine but we got koolade. I can make a meal of it any day of the week!